So , safe to assume mike young going to the 4
- Thread starter SoufOaklin4Life
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I have been against the thought of Nix red shirting, but now I would not be as against it. Having a year of practice under his belt, and as our starter the year after is a good option with Manigault off the bench. Either way though, I don't care, but seems we went from having no centers to having lots of decent options.
What makes you think that? Some inside info????
Otherwise, I would guess that Mike Young will start at C and Jamel Artis will start at PF. Then, the time when Jamel is not in the game, MY would play PF. This leaves considerable time for Rafael Maia at C off the bench.
Where this leaves Nix and Luther... I don't know. If Nix can play then it would be good to get him into every game to wear the opposition down a bit at C.
Also... Artis is not known for his D and MY is not great, but Dixon says that Ryan Luther is his best post defender (as long as he is not asked to cover a C like Okafor or Chtistmas). So, in close games down the stretch where we have a lead... might be better to have Luther in there at PF for D... or go Luther for D and Artis for O.
In any case Dixon tried Artis at SF last year and it did not work out.... he was pretty much invisible out there. Then Dixon moved him back to what Dixon called 'his natural position'... PF... and it was not long after that when Artis took off with his scoring... averaging around 20 PPG for a considerable stretch. So, I don't see Dixon trying to play Artis at SF again.
At SF...I think the time there would be between Jeter, Jones and Slim... with Jeter starting... just like last year.
I feel the same way, Kiwi. I think Nix could actually end up being pretty good. It takes a lot of work to drop as much weight as he has, and that speaks to his dedication. Having him for an extra year could alleviate some concerns over depth and give him a chance to get used to D1 speed before having to contribute.
Hmmmmm.... Alonzo Nelson-Ododa is a combo C/F at 6'9" and 235 is bigger than Artis and Luther but not bigger than Young and Maia.
He came off the bench this past year for Richmond and will almost surely for the same for us.
Was voted to the pre-season A10 all defensive team so that was probably the selling point from Dixon... we need more D!
Yeah, Dixon has a lot of options now inside.... Young, Artis, Maia, Nix, Luther and now ANO. We will see how he handles it but it is hard not to see MY starting at C or Artis not starting at PF.
He came off the bench this past year for Richmond and will almost surely for the same for us.
Was voted to the pre-season A10 all defensive team so that was probably the selling point from Dixon... we need more D!
Yeah, Dixon has a lot of options now inside.... Young, Artis, Maia, Nix, Luther and now ANO. We will see how he handles it but it is hard not to see MY starting at C or Artis not starting at PF.
Sterling Smith will be the starting SG.
Both are good players but SS is a more natural SG and Chris Jones played mostly SF (once Wright came back) last year and Dixon decided he needed Jones off the bench around mid-season and no reason to change that now.
Who ends up spelling SS at SG remains to be seen. A lot of that depends on what happens with Newkirk and Wilson which is currently up in the air right now and will probably remain so for quite some time. Those two are in the mix as are Jones and Slim. Yeah, LOL, right now I would not hazard a guess on that one.. though if Slim comes on with his 3ball shooting he is gonna get PT one way or another.
Hmmmm... ANO was a starter for Richmond at the beginning of the season but was coming off the bench for them at the end. Missed 8 games with an eye injury so that might have affected things.
Hard to guess what Dixon's plan is here. Probably.... there was NOTHING left at guard so he went for the best player available.
Uh... it is hard to see BOTH Maia and ANO getting the minutes with us that they got with their former teams. Things are pretty crowded now inside... and the only true sized C we have is Nix and yes it is possible he might get RSed.
Yeah, Luther could also get RSed.
Hard to guess what Dixon's plan is here. Probably.... there was NOTHING left at guard so he went for the best player available.
Uh... it is hard to see BOTH Maia and ANO getting the minutes with us that they got with their former teams. Things are pretty crowded now inside... and the only true sized C we have is Nix and yes it is possible he might get RSed.
Yeah, Luther could also get RSed.
The main issue young has is defending strong centers down low. If the guys we brought in allow him to guard the opposing PF it should help a lot defensively. The question is can Artis guard a 3? Probably not, but I guess we'd be pretty big along the back line if we played some zone
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From everything I've come to understand, it's not safe to assume anything. Maybe there are few things that are set. Maybe James at the point, but that’s about it.
Who can defend is the criteria that will matter.
But starting with the five isn't the right place.
I believe the starting point is Jamel Artis.
I don't believe the staff sees Jamel as a "three" or a "four." They see him as a good offensive player. But they also recognize that he had significant challenges as a defensive player.
Just like we all saw, I'm sure they saw how much trouble he had guarding dribble penetration when playing on the perimeter. All the same, he had a heck of a time with switches on the perimeter.
When Jamel played the four, these problems were not as apparent.
However, playing Mike at the five and Jamel at the four easily became clear as the best option when it was equally clear that Joe just couldn't perform physically and Derrick never really captured what he needed to do with switching, etc. With this lineup, we could at least score.
I've heard good things about our transfer from Brown. I've heard he can play and rebound well, and is a certain upgrade from Randall, Joe and Aaron.
But it won't matter if we have Dekembe Mutombo playing the five and protecting the rim if we can't find a way to guard dribble penetration. Even rim protectors can’t do anything when they have to step up to guard a dribbler, who can dump to the man the rim protector left, or pass to the perimeter for a three.
This is why we need to go back to Jamel. Jamel should play the three. But if he can't guard the perimeter, this will continue to hamper this team.
If Jamel can play adequate defense at the three, playing Mike at the four and Nix and Maia at the five, that’s a good thing. We'll rebound better, and that will matter. But we’ll see how this shakes out.
I also understand it’s not anything close to certain to pencil in Smith as a starter at the two. This spot will also depend on who defends.
The staff really likes Chris Jones. They want him to play at the two, but things haven’t worked out that way for him thus far. They also think he can defend the perimeter fairly well. Time will only tell who can defend better between Smith and Jones. And it will only be a battle between Smith and Jones if Jamel can become a mainstay at the three.
All of this doesn’t even mention Sheldon Jeter. When he was on offensively, we were a strong team, even if we still couldn’t defend. My understanding is that Sheldon plays better offense at the three, but he was not strong defensively anywhere.
Make no mistake, 80% of our problems were on defense last year. We were a bad defensive team. Who plays where will depend much more about how we can improve defensively. And with that, I’ll say again it’s not safe to assume anything.
Who can defend is the criteria that will matter.
But starting with the five isn't the right place.
I believe the starting point is Jamel Artis.
I don't believe the staff sees Jamel as a "three" or a "four." They see him as a good offensive player. But they also recognize that he had significant challenges as a defensive player.
Just like we all saw, I'm sure they saw how much trouble he had guarding dribble penetration when playing on the perimeter. All the same, he had a heck of a time with switches on the perimeter.
When Jamel played the four, these problems were not as apparent.
However, playing Mike at the five and Jamel at the four easily became clear as the best option when it was equally clear that Joe just couldn't perform physically and Derrick never really captured what he needed to do with switching, etc. With this lineup, we could at least score.
I've heard good things about our transfer from Brown. I've heard he can play and rebound well, and is a certain upgrade from Randall, Joe and Aaron.
But it won't matter if we have Dekembe Mutombo playing the five and protecting the rim if we can't find a way to guard dribble penetration. Even rim protectors can’t do anything when they have to step up to guard a dribbler, who can dump to the man the rim protector left, or pass to the perimeter for a three.
This is why we need to go back to Jamel. Jamel should play the three. But if he can't guard the perimeter, this will continue to hamper this team.
If Jamel can play adequate defense at the three, playing Mike at the four and Nix and Maia at the five, that’s a good thing. We'll rebound better, and that will matter. But we’ll see how this shakes out.
I also understand it’s not anything close to certain to pencil in Smith as a starter at the two. This spot will also depend on who defends.
The staff really likes Chris Jones. They want him to play at the two, but things haven’t worked out that way for him thus far. They also think he can defend the perimeter fairly well. Time will only tell who can defend better between Smith and Jones. And it will only be a battle between Smith and Jones if Jamel can become a mainstay at the three.
All of this doesn’t even mention Sheldon Jeter. When he was on offensively, we were a strong team, even if we still couldn’t defend. My understanding is that Sheldon plays better offense at the three, but he was not strong defensively anywhere.
Make no mistake, 80% of our problems were on defense last year. We were a bad defensive team. Who plays where will depend much more about how we can improve defensively. And with that, I’ll say again it’s not safe to assume anything.
Yeah, I think even JD does not know how this is going to work at this point. But, adding three older, experienced players at positions of need who have been solid players at a little lower level adds some much needed options that he didn't have a month ago. It also is important to factor in MY, Artis and to a lesser extent Jones moving into their junior seasons, a time when they could take a real step up in terms of maturity and consistency.
You certainly could see MY at the four/Artis as the three now. We all agree Artis was bad defensively at the three last year, but again, IF he really works on it this off season, you could see him being possibly OK defensively, especially if you had more viable defensive centers.
I will say, they may like Jones, but just hard to see him being a full time or good ACC 2G given his modest quickness/athleticism, especially if they are worried about defense.
Either way, Jamie Dixon DESPERATELY needs to have some good news ON THE COURT next year, and bringing these three in, along with ideally a junior year bump for MY and Artis gives him a shot at putting a top 5 ACC team together.
Final thought, JRob needs to step his game up significantly in his last go around to make it all work.
A few other thoughts. This is NOT the way to run a major D1 program, having to fill in with three fifth year guys like this regularly. But, while JD has to own letting this roster fall apart to the extent that this was necessary at this point, he has fully embraced the state of the game today where it is an option and while his prep recruiting was extremely inadequate this year, he DID bring in three of the better fifth year guys to give him more tools to make a run this upcoming season.
IDEALLY he, BK and Smoke get the kids from the prep ranks in the next class necessary to start to get the program building good in house four year guys again.
DT---- You stated-
" But, t won't matter if we have Dekembe Mutombo playing the five and protecting the rim if we can't find a way to guard dribble penetration. Even rim protectors can’t do anything when they have to step up to guard a dribbler, who can dump to the man the rim protector left, or pass to the perimeter for a three."
I think you may be failing to fully appreciate the synergy between perimeter defense (minimizing dribble penetration and defending the 3-ball) and post defense. Perimeter defenders play more effective defense on the perimeter when there is a good post defender for a variety of reasons. They are able to be less risk adverse and consequently can play tighter and closer when they have a good post defender inside. There is also the corollary that the opponent's perimeter offensive player becomes somewhat/slightly more reluctant or, at least, a bit more hesitant about initiating attempts at dribble penetration. Also, a good post defender makes it more difficult for your opponent to execute the inside-outside game which creates the most open (or weakly guarded) 3-ball opportunities. This makes it easier on the perimeter defenders to guard 3-ballshooters because these shooters get fewer good opportunities as the perimeter defense sags less because the ball gets inside less often. This makes the perimeter defenders more effective guarding the 3-ball as well.
So, IMHO, the real question is not so much whether Artis and others do better individual jobs defending the perimeter as it is whether one of, or some combo of, Ododa, Maia and Nix will provide good enough post defense (better than last season) to allow post-perimeter defensive synergy to be sufficiently effective to make next year's team better defensively overall.
" But, t won't matter if we have Dekembe Mutombo playing the five and protecting the rim if we can't find a way to guard dribble penetration. Even rim protectors can’t do anything when they have to step up to guard a dribbler, who can dump to the man the rim protector left, or pass to the perimeter for a three."
I think you may be failing to fully appreciate the synergy between perimeter defense (minimizing dribble penetration and defending the 3-ball) and post defense. Perimeter defenders play more effective defense on the perimeter when there is a good post defender for a variety of reasons. They are able to be less risk adverse and consequently can play tighter and closer when they have a good post defender inside. There is also the corollary that the opponent's perimeter offensive player becomes somewhat/slightly more reluctant or, at least, a bit more hesitant about initiating attempts at dribble penetration. Also, a good post defender makes it more difficult for your opponent to execute the inside-outside game which creates the most open (or weakly guarded) 3-ball opportunities. This makes it easier on the perimeter defenders to guard 3-ballshooters because these shooters get fewer good opportunities as the perimeter defense sags less because the ball gets inside less often. This makes the perimeter defenders more effective guarding the 3-ball as well.
So, IMHO, the real question is not so much whether Artis and others do better individual jobs defending the perimeter as it is whether one of, or some combo of, Ododa, Maia and Nix will provide good enough post defense (better than last season) to allow post-perimeter defensive synergy to be sufficiently effective to make next year's team better defensively overall.
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Ododa averaged 23 minutes per game for the 27 games he appeared in. Actually he may have averaged a few more minutes than that in most of those games since he had greatly reduced minutes for a few games just before and after his eye injury kept him out. The 23 minutes makes his 1.7 blocks/game even more interesting since had he played 32-35 minutes/game he could, in theory, have averaged 2.5 blocks/game.
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Good points DT. Defense is still the big problem and improving defensively is the key for any real success. What Jamie has done with the 3 grad transfers is reload the roster immediately. He now has enough pieces that he can mix and match , and perhaps most importantly, use playing time as a carrot/stick incentive to force his team to either play defense or sit.
Last year, he explicitly stated he had to play zone because he didn't have enough players to play M2M with the necessary intensity for the full game. Now he does.
We now at least theoretically go two deep at every position. Last year we basically only had 8 guys who could play.
Yeah, we'd all be happier with some more quickness in the backcourt but at least there are bodies and decent length at SG. Newkirk and Wilson's status make the back-up PG still a bit iffy but there are now options everywhere else and the competition for playing time should be very interesting.
I agree with Jeffburgh that building a roster with 5th year transfers is far from ideal, especially for a program that has been based on player development, but given the situation, Dixon was shrewd in taking advantage of the rule. He restocked a failed post position with a solid rebounder in Maia and the A-10 Defensive POY, plus a huge project in Nix. If Nix shows enough in Summer practices, he could be redshirted to help with class balance and add depth after this rising junior class leaves.
Sterling Smith adds outside shooting and at least had a decent number of steals.
And, none of the 3 ties up scholarships after this season. Restocking the roster with guys who can help in future years is critical. Manigault is a great start but a PG is badly needed as is a long term answer at 2/3. Or even two wings.
I suspect that some things ARE still a given. As long as Jamel Artis scores at a pace near 20 ppg, he's going to get a lot of minutes, somewhere. Mike Young is going to get his 25-30 minutes. Many of them may still be at 5, depending upon matchups. JRob is going to be the main ball-handler.
But, other than those, there are a lot of options and guys are going to have to earn their minutes. We shouldn't see an over matched team that hits a wall at the end of games and the season. We might not have the star power of the top teams in the ACC, but we do have the two rising junior star forwards and a lot of interesting pieces to mix and match around them.
It may also be interesting to see how the new 30-second shot clock affects our defense. I suspect it might have the opposite effect than what the NCAA intends. It may help defensive teams more than offensive teams, because they only have to play defense 5 seconds shorter.
Just an opinion; but, barring very bad luck with the injury bug, and after seeing the Ododa video I don't think we will see much of MY at the 5. I think we will see Ododa with ~25+/- min and Maia with ~15 +/- min at the 5 (with 10 fouls to give 
). I think that Nix will redshirt for further development since he will be a JR with 3 years to play 2. This also gives Luther the opportunity to take the redshirt year he should have gotten last year.
I think MY will be strictly the 4 and he should be a more effective 4 since i think he and Ododa will complement each other very well. In this scenario, Artis gets a starter's minutes spread between both the 3 and the 4 spot.
). I think that Nix will redshirt for further development since he will be a JR with 3 years to play 2. This also gives Luther the opportunity to take the redshirt year he should have gotten last year.I think MY will be strictly the 4 and he should be a more effective 4 since i think he and Ododa will complement each other very well. In this scenario, Artis gets a starter's minutes spread between both the 3 and the 4 spot.
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I think we go big and experienced.
10/11 players share minutes
Young 30 - Nix 10
Odoba 20 - Maia 20
Artis 30 - Jeter 10
Jones 20 - Smith 20
Robinson 30 - Newkirk/Wilson 10
Luther redshirts
C.Johnson - Situational player
Would really have liked to add a guard with a handle. (An injury to Robinson could really bite us)
10/11 players share minutes
Young 30 - Nix 10
Odoba 20 - Maia 20
Artis 30 - Jeter 10
Jones 20 - Smith 20
Robinson 30 - Newkirk/Wilson 10
Luther redshirts
C.Johnson - Situational player
Would really have liked to add a guard with a handle. (An injury to Robinson could really bite us)
Would really have liked to add a guard with a handle. (An injury to Robinson could really bite us)[/QUOTE]
Newkirk will have to be Robinson's back up assuming he is fully recovered from his knee injury.
Newkirk will have to be Robinson's back up assuming he is fully recovered from his knee injury.
I think this lets you red shirt Nix. No reason not to really. I think James, Artis, and Young see 30 mins or so a game. Other than that Im sure Newkirk will get 15 or so. Jones sees about 20, Jeter 15-20. Odaba prob gets about 20+/- Maia about 10( I think Young still sees about 10 mins at C) I don't think Smith gets as many minutes as people may think. It really depends on if Wilson gets here and how good he is(or how well Newkirk plays this year). I think he could be a darkhorse guy to see 15 mins at the 2.
Just my opinion:
I think it helps for the following season if Nix plays 10 minutes a game this year. I think Maia is definitely better than 10 minutes a game. Wilson (if qualified) does not look ready to me. Newkirk really struggled last season and will be coming back (when?) off an injury. S.Smith 3 PT shooting and Ft shooting get him 20 minutes
Nope. I've been told Mike Young is excellent at the 5. Despite nearly everybody who watched a Pitt game opined that Young was playing out of position and it adversely affected our team, the usual 5-6 posters held firm that Young was unquestionably the answer at Center.
SMF (and many others): right again
Especially if by "right" you mean "100% wrong, as usual".
No one, and I mean literally no one, has said that Young was an "excellent" center. However what lots of people that know a hell of a lot more about basketball than you do did say was that Young played better last season as a five than he did as a four. And really, the only people that dispute that are the ones who have no idea what they are talking about (you, for instance).
If Young is going to play significantly more at the four this season, and it sure looks like that will be the plan right now, we had better hope that he takes a page from the Sam Young playbook and shoots about 500 jump shots every day between now and the start of fall practice.
Of course I was exaggerating a bit, and your points are well taken. However, I believe it is a mistake to believe a shot blocker solves our defensive problems.
gary--don't get too hung up on Center on offense. Ododa & Young will be complementary inside on offense. Whoever gets doubled down low can feed the other for an easy one. If Ododa gets it down low he can also kick it to an open young for a short range jumper.
Joe--IMHO, Mike Young scored pretty well at center last year. However, he doesn't have the hops and quickness needed to be an effective center on defense. That is why he makes a better PF defensively. Offensively speaking--the only time he played PF last season was when he was in while Ochebo or Randall were on the floor. Neither of those (for different reasons) poses the threat to score threat that Ododa (with his hops and quickness) does and will. That threat will open up far more opportunities for Young to shine offensively as a PF (he won't be covered like a blanket all the time and will practically never see a double team), IMO.
Joe--IMHO, Mike Young scored pretty well at center last year. However, he doesn't have the hops and quickness needed to be an effective center on defense. That is why he makes a better PF defensively. Offensively speaking--the only time he played PF last season was when he was in while Ochebo or Randall were on the floor. Neither of those (for different reasons) poses the threat to score threat that Ododa (with his hops and quickness) does and will. That threat will open up far more opportunities for Young to shine offensively as a PF (he won't be covered like a blanket all the time and will practically never see a double team), IMO.
Exactly right on the position thing.
Thinking of guys at the 3, 4, or 5 is really all about defense, not offense. And lineups vary greatly by position mix. Going by natural position, Villanova often plays four guards and a forward, and they're quite successful with that. Kentucky's lineup last year often had G, F, F, C, C mix.
People try to plug players into positions and then dictate their duties based on position. Joe said that MY needs to become a better outside shooter if he is going to play the four. He already has a reasonable good mid-range jumper, but that is not the point. Pitt will be a better team with MY at the 4 and Maio/Adoda at the 5 because we will be bigger, stronger, and better defensively.
Dixon likes experience, and I would bet that the two grad transfers will split time at center, with Nix redshirting. Nix needs time banging against the two older guys in practice more than he needs 10 minutes per game. Nice to have him for two years after what will be a fitness/development year as a redshirt.
Thinking of guys at the 3, 4, or 5 is really all about defense, not offense. And lineups vary greatly by position mix. Going by natural position, Villanova often plays four guards and a forward, and they're quite successful with that. Kentucky's lineup last year often had G, F, F, C, C mix.
People try to plug players into positions and then dictate their duties based on position. Joe said that MY needs to become a better outside shooter if he is going to play the four. He already has a reasonable good mid-range jumper, but that is not the point. Pitt will be a better team with MY at the 4 and Maio/Adoda at the 5 because we will be bigger, stronger, and better defensively.
Dixon likes experience, and I would bet that the two grad transfers will split time at center, with Nix redshirting. Nix needs time banging against the two older guys in practice more than he needs 10 minutes per game. Nice to have him for two years after what will be a fitness/development year as a redshirt.
I don't feel confident at all with Robinson/ Newkirk and Jones/Smith closing out in the 3 and stopping penetration.
Great to have big post guys who can play good post D. Truth is most teams are guard driven and don't run post sets anymore.
A shot blocker puts team defense in a lot of trouble every time he streps up to cover for a guard who got best off the dribble because he he's himself out of rebounding position and can't challenge a shot off a dump pass.
I agree with DT about it not mattering if you have Mutumbo if you can't keep the other guards out of the lane.
Plus if Slim isn't healthy, we are really relying on one guard who had never played for Pitt yet to stretch the other D with range.
I will say this one more time. NCAA is about quick and athletic guards who can drive, stop the drive, and shoot. If they can't do all 3, they are a liability.
This team will be above average with Artis and Young. To be better, it's not about the new additions, it's about the guard play.
Great to have big post guys who can play good post D. Truth is most teams are guard driven and don't run post sets anymore.
A shot blocker puts team defense in a lot of trouble every time he streps up to cover for a guard who got best off the dribble because he he's himself out of rebounding position and can't challenge a shot off a dump pass.
I agree with DT about it not mattering if you have Mutumbo if you can't keep the other guards out of the lane.
Plus if Slim isn't healthy, we are really relying on one guard who had never played for Pitt yet to stretch the other D with range.
I will say this one more time. NCAA is about quick and athletic guards who can drive, stop the drive, and shoot. If they can't do all 3, they are a liability.
This team will be above average with Artis and Young. To be better, it's not about the new additions, it's about the guard play.
It all depends on how good you want or expect this team to be in 2015-16. The potential is there to be similar to Virginia; but not to be final four good. I don't want or expect more in 2015-2016 because that would be unrealistic given the roster makeup.
On the other hand, the belief that our guards are terrible defenders is, IMHO, a miss-perception. Are they great defenders? No. But they would have been and will be adequate to good if there is a post defender who can do two things pretty well (we didn't have either last year):
1. This is the most important of the two. Ability to deny receipt of the entry pass into the opponent's post scorer. This kills the opponent's inside-outside game which greatly reduces the opponent's ability to have his perimeter shooters get open looks to effectively score the 3-ball. A post defender who can do this is going to makes perimeter defenders look a lot better.
2. Ability to block shots in the paint. This discourages dribble penetration and also allows your guards to play their opposite number much tighter. This also makes your guards look better.
If we can get this kind of result from our post defenders in 2015-2016 we will all be amazed at how much better our guards got at defending compared to last year. If not, it will be more of the same and our guards will take more of a beating from the fans as to how bad they are as defenders than they really deserve because it wasn't and isn't entirely on them to begin with although it certainly will have that appearance.
I don't know if is miss-perception (or not) that our guards are terrible defenders.
I do know that it was absolutely positively the case that our guards did a terrible job guarding dribble penetration last year.
Well he is better at the 5...
But we are adding post depth , so he can flex up or we can go double post.
People keep talking about Young at PF but with that they assume that Jamel Artis would move to SF.... DESPITE the fact that Jamel played at SF for the first part of last season and was invisible there.... AND the fact that when Dixon moved Artis back to PF, Dixon said he was moving him back to his 'natural' position... and it was not long after that when Jamel took off with his scoring... from the PF position.
Also, if you look at Artis' game, moving back and forth through the lane and catch and shoot... and sometimes stepping outside for a 3ball... and making plays around the basket. If instead of playing PF you have him at SF, that totally takes him out of his game.
So, I don't see Dixon moving Artis back to SF... at least not for significant periods of time.
Also, if you look at Artis' game, moving back and forth through the lane and catch and shoot... and sometimes stepping outside for a 3ball... and making plays around the basket. If instead of playing PF you have him at SF, that totally takes him out of his game.
So, I don't see Dixon moving Artis back to SF... at least not for significant periods of time.
While a shot blocking center doesn't solve the defensive problems for this team, hopefully it will help hide them some. You mention that things seem to depend on Artis. While he was a real good offensive player, he was a pretty significant liability on defense. I thought Mike Young was a pretty decent defensive player (in fact, the only one). The only thing that gives me hope, is that the defense was so bad, it has to improve. Right?
Ya know, thinking about this one a bit..... I can see Maia as Randall's replacement (in other words, he fits into the scheme of things the same way as Randall did... but should be much better than Randall), Nix as Uchebo's replacement, and ANO... as LUTHER'S replacement.
Yeah, one can say that you can play ANO at C but.... Dixon was doing that with Luther. Wasn't too bad there either except when he came up against Okafor and Christmas and got eaten alive. ANO, should be able to play good D against players like that.
Also... I agree with SMF (and others?) that Mike Young... was better playing the 5. He was given various chances to play at PF and... didn't really do much that I can remember.
The problem with Mike Young, is he gets worn down playing C to the point where he does not play the hedge down the stretch... and Dixon's plan is to play him more at PF. But, IMO the better plan would be to do with Nix what Dixon did with Uchebo in the Cuse game in the dome.... in other words.... send Nix in on a defensive possession and leave him in there for a couple of possessions and then bring MY back in on an offensive possession. This worked real good with MY going off for 22 points in three straight games.
Yeah, we are all speculating here and the only one who's decision counts is Dixon... and we won't be seeing what his plans really are for 5 months.
Yeah, one can say that you can play ANO at C but.... Dixon was doing that with Luther. Wasn't too bad there either except when he came up against Okafor and Christmas and got eaten alive. ANO, should be able to play good D against players like that.
Also... I agree with SMF (and others?) that Mike Young... was better playing the 5. He was given various chances to play at PF and... didn't really do much that I can remember.
The problem with Mike Young, is he gets worn down playing C to the point where he does not play the hedge down the stretch... and Dixon's plan is to play him more at PF. But, IMO the better plan would be to do with Nix what Dixon did with Uchebo in the Cuse game in the dome.... in other words.... send Nix in on a defensive possession and leave him in there for a couple of possessions and then bring MY back in on an offensive possession. This worked real good with MY going off for 22 points in three straight games.
Yeah, we are all speculating here and the only one who's decision counts is Dixon... and we won't be seeing what his plans really are for 5 months.
Phijoe... I here what you are saying but playing Artis at SF would be a waste.... would be better playing Jeter or Jones at SF.
So, what are you gonna do... bring last year's leading scorer off the bench??
The only handle I can get on this is to say the scheme of things are the SAME as last year, except with Maia replacing Randall, Nix replacing Uchebo, and ANO replacing Luther.
Yeah, should be MUCH better inside as the new players are all significantly better than what we had in those slots last year.
No question that inability to stop dribble penetration was a big problem defensively for us last year but it wasn't the only problem defensively ..... our help defense rotation was very poor. When the opponents guard dribble penetrated and our rim protector/usually center came up to help that should not have been the end of the help defense/ rotation as others needed to rotate over to guard the man the rim protector left, etc. and Artis/Jeter were clueless in that regard..... help defense is all about positioning and getting to the proper position as quickly as possible .... it takes knowing where to be and anticipating to get there quickly ..... for some reason Artis and Jeter could not do it very well ..... if they would have rotated in help defense properly, the options of the dribble penetrator become fewer......... I thought our hedge defense was not very good either and we had to try and make adjustments there also throughout the year.
We were just a very bad defensive team last season and not being able to stop dribble penetration was one of several problems .... maybe it was the biggest problem but it was magnified, IMO, by the other problems we also had defensively..... it will be very interesting to see if the returning players improve on the defensive end and whether the incoming transfers are an upgrade defensively.
I think JD was more desperate than shrewd in aggressively going after the grad transfers. We had some gaping roster deficiencies that were not addressed at all in the last couple of HS recruiting seasons. These are all band-aids, there is no question about that. It will be interesting to see how it all fits together, and how it all works with the most underrated variable of them all-chemistry.
